People clearly have a passion for old homes. Our recent post on “How homes kept cool before the age of AC” was very popular. It inspired hundreds to share their experiences and know-how, including telling us about some cooling features of older homes that we’d missed.

The top four states with the highest number of homebuyers include Florida, California, Texas and Arizona. It’s no coincidence that these states also happen to have more than 200 days of sun every year.

When the temperature spikes, many of us crank up the air conditioner without a second thought … until the electricity bill arrives. The good news is that many of your home’s standard energy efficient features can help you stay cool—cheaply—by aiding ventilation and preventing unnecessary heating.

The electric utility industry’s central criticism of distributed solar is that it creates a “cost shift” from rooftop solar customers to non-solar customers. This isn’t entirely true because most solar customers cover the cost for utilities to serve them, thus shifting no costs.

There are a lot of things that don’t work as well as we’d like in the world today: fad diets, get-rich-quick schemes, that combination toaster/juicer you bought from the late night shopping channel…luckily solar power isn’t one of them.SolarCity customers back us up in this video series to debunk myths about solar energy.

A solar power system is customized for your home, so pricing and savings vary based on location, system size, government rebates and local utility rates. Savings on your total electricity costs is not guaranteed. Financing terms vary by location and are not available in all areas. $0 due upon contract signing and no security deposit required for leases and PPAs. A 3 kW system starts at $25-$100 per month with an annual increase of 0-2.9% each year for 20-30 years, on approved credit. SolarCity Corporation will repair or replace broken warranted components. SolarCity DBA Tesla Energy CA CSLB 888104, MA HIC 168572/EL-1136MR, other contractor licenses. SolarCity is not the lender and only the third party lender may approve, offer, or make a loan.

Savings based on SolarPPA and SolarLease customers with at least twelve months of billing data. Savings Rate calculated by subtracting PPA or equivalent lease kWh rate from relevant utility kWh rate. Savings calculated by multiplying actual kWh supplied by SolarCity in customers' first year times Savings Rate. Excludes fully or partially prepaid contracts.

Solar Bonds are debt securities issued by SolarCity. As with any investment, purchasing Solar Bonds involves risk. You must make your own decision about whether and how much to invest in Solar Bonds. SolarCity cannot make any investment recommendations or otherwise provide any investment advice. SolarCity has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for offerings to which information on this web site relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents SolarCity has filed with the SEC for more complete information about SolarCity and the offerings. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC web site at www.sec.gov. Alternatively, you may obtain the prospectus relating to the Solar Bonds, and the pricing supplement relating to a particular series of Solar Bonds, at solarbonds.solarcity.com.

*Based on SolarCity average system size of 6 kW and 8,418 kWh average first year production degraded by .5% annually over 30 years. Environmental benefits based on data collected from: Environmental Protection Agency, US Geological Survey, Global ReLeaf, and National Geographic April 2014.